Monsanto’s GMO soybean ‘safe as conventional counterpart,’ EU expert panel confirms

dicamba soybeans
A field of dicamba-resistant soybeans

Following the submission of [an] application …. from Monsanto (hereafter referred to as ‘the applicant’), the Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms of the European Food Safety Authority (hereafter referred to as the ‘GMO Panel’) was asked to deliver a scientific opinion on genetically modified (GM) soybean …. The scope of [the] application is for the placing on the market of the three‐event stack soybean for food and feed uses, import and processing.

The three‐event stack soybean was produced by conventional crossing to combine three single soybean events …. to confer tolerance to dicamba, glyphosate and glufosinate‐ammonium containing herbicides.

Cultivated soybean …. originated from eastern Asia and is a highly domesticated crop, generally unable to survive in the environment without appropriate management.

Occasional feral GM soybean plants may occur outside cultivation areas, but survival is limited mainly by a combination of low competitiveness, absence of a dormancy phase and susceptibility to plant pathogens and cold climatic conditions. Soybean …. seeds usually do not survive during the winter. Thus, the establishment and survival of feral and volunteer soybean in the EU is currently limited and transient.

There is no evidence that the genetic modification might change the overall allergenicity of the three‐event stack soybean. The nutritional impact of the three‐event stack soybean foods and feeds is expected to be the same as that of foods and feeds derived from its conventional counterpart and non‐GM reference varieties. The GMO Panel concludes that the three‐event stack soybean, as described in this application, is as safe as and nutritionally equivalent to its conventional counterpart and the non‐GM reference varieties tested.

Read full, original article: Assessment of genetically modified soybean MON 87708 × MON 89788 × A5547‐127, for food and feed uses, under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 (application EFSA‐GMO‐NL‐2016‐135)

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